We had another early start and got checked out of the Royston Guest House by 7:30. Several seagulls had disrespected the car so we stopped by Morrison’s for a car wash, topped off the gas, and headed on our way to Balmoral.
We were driving through Cairngorms National Park and it is the most beautiful and desolate wilderness you can possibly imagine. The trees grow in patches, but huge swaths of the mountains are only covered in fields of rocks and heather. So many sheep and we even saw a pheasant!
This was also the most challenging driving day so far.
The drive to Balmoral was only about an hour and a half, but the roads were narrow, steep, and largely one-lane. When we got to Balmoral both Dad and I were relieved.
Balmoral is the Queen’s country estate in Scotland where she spends a good part of each year, beginning in August. It was purchased by Queen Victoria and while the estate house isn’t large by castle standards, it’s still fairly massive, with extensive grounds that make the estate around 50,000 acres (78 square miles).
I had booked us morning tea so we headed to the cafe to have tea and cake and warm up a bit out of the wind.
Dad and I both had tea, Dad had chocolate cake, and I had a slice of Victoria sponge cake. It was all very good! After tea we started on our tour of the grounds.
There is only one room you can go into at Balmoral and no photos are allowed, sadly. So I accidentally took this selfie/pic of the ceiling paintings so that I can make a cross stitch pattern…
By some bizarre coincidence we arrived at the same time as a Lamborghini club from Edinburgh. 35 Lamborghinis in front of Balmoral was quite the sight!
After touring the grounds I raided the gift shop and got a few things, including a tea cup for my office. We braced ourselves for the next leg of the drive to Pitlochry and set off.
It was just as horrific as the first leg. Possibly worse…
At one point a logging lorry nearly smashed me into a narrow stone bridge. Blind curves and hills with everyone (but me) driving at 60 mph. After we got to Pitlochry I desperately needed a pint of cider, and Dad had been stamping on the imaginary brake so often I think he needed a beer just as badly. We (finally) found a place to park the car and since it was too early to check in, we found a pub to have a bite to eat (and a drink) then walked down to see the dam and fish ladder on the River Tummel just a few blocks from our hotel.
By the time we finished our walk around town we could check into our room and we decided to crash for a bit before dinner at 7:30.
Hotel view!
We went down to the restaurant at 7:30 (half awake) and ate an awesome dinner of steak (Dad) and steak and ale pie (me). We were too stuffed for dessert so we decided to call it an early evening and got to bed early.
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